According to Iraq's human rights minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, IS has killed at least 500 Yazidis.

He also says women and children have been buried alive and 300 females have been captured to be used as slaves.

Tens of thousands of Yazidis fled when the Islamic State group earlier this month captured the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar, near the Syrian border.

The Yazidis practice an ancient religion that the Sunni Muslim radicals consider as devil worship.

The plight of the Yazidis, tens of thousands of whom were stranded on a desert mountaintop for days, encircled by the Islamic extremists, prompted the U.S. to launch aid lifts as well as airstrikes to help Kurdish fighters get them to safety.

HOMELESS: The number of displaced people in Iraq has more than doubled since IS seized Iraq's second biggest city Mosul in June [EPA]

Today Britain confirmed it has sent a spy plane on a reconnaissance mission over the area.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed a surveillance aircraft has flown over northern Iraq to gauge the humanitarian situation to help decide how best to deliver aid to the stranded Yazidis.

The US has been conducting airstrikes against the Islamic State fighters and last night two IS armoured vehicles are believed to have been destroyed in a drone strike.

At an emergency EU meeting in Brussels on Friday, the 28 member-states were asked whether they would arm Iraq's Kurds, the main opponent of IS in the north.

The UK says it would "consider favourably" arms requests.

SPY PLANE: A Rivet Joint aircraft has been deployed by Britain as part of humanitarian efforts in Iraq [PA]